Days after Jennifer Aniston split from her husband of four years, Brad Pitt, the former Friends star is also parting company with Barclaycard, for whom she had been the celebrity face for the last year.

Ms Aniston, whose one-year contract with the credit card provider had run its course, is being replaced by Absolutely Fabulous star Jennifer Saunders.

Filming of the new, secret Barclaycard advertisement will begin today, although it is unlikely to reach television screens for at least another three months.

Barclaycard, part of Barclays bank, is the country's most popular plastic. But it has had a sticky patch after Matt Barrett - then the chief executive of Barclays - told the Treasury select committee in 2003 he did not borrow on credit cards and did not encourage his children to do so because it was "too expensive".

Shortly afterwards the Office of Fair Trading forced Barclaycard to withdraw ads for a "0% forever" promotion, which the consumer watchdog said were highly misleading.

Barclaycard was coy about the number and content of its new ads but said they would be based on its new theme of "Barclaycalm" - intended to demonstrate that Barclays takes the fuss out of transactions.

Ms Saunders, who has not endorsed a product on TV for at least 10 years, is known for her comedy partnership with Dawn French, as well the Absolutely Fabulous series. More recently she was the voice for the fairy godmother in Shrek 2.

In agreeing to endorse Barclaycard, Ms Saunders is joining a long line of famous names used to promote the country's first credit card.

Dudley Moore was the first actor to be called up for a Barclaycard advertising campaign, followed by Alan Whicker, Rowan Atkinson - who spent seven years as the hapless spy Richard Latham - and Angus Deayton.

The wider Barclays group has also used celebrity endorsement but recently stopped a group-wide campaign that latterly featured Gary Oldman and Donald Sutherland but originally starred Samuel L Jackson. The bank now has a new marketing director, Jim Hytner, replacing Simon Gulliford, who left last year after three years with the group. The campaign was estimated to have cost £40m. Barclays' current TV advertising is based around the Barclays Premiership and features former football managers Bobby Robson and Gordon Strachan.